ASU athletics is spreading its message in southern California with six billboards featuring recruiting coordinator/linebackers coach Antonio Pierce and several players from the area.(Photo: ASU athletics)

That was before ASU put up six billboards in the Los Angeles area aimed at ASU alumni and boosters in that area. The billboards are strategically located on LA freeways including the heavily traveled 405.

"We want the most traffic," said Gabe Cagwin, ASU athletics chief business development officer. "You always hear there wasn't much ASU presence in past years in southern California. This was a way to help our donors get more involved, to let people know southern Cal is a priority for us, to get more people coming out for games and drive some new revenue."

The billboard features ASU recruiting coordinator/linebackers coach Antonio Pierce and players Merlin Robertson, Darien Butler, Aashari Crosswell and Jermayne Lole, all of whom are from southern California and started at ASU as freshmen.

Pierce coached at Long Beach Poly High School before joining Herm Edwards' ASU staff. Robertson was Pac-12 defensive Freshman of the Year.

An ASU football billboard in Southern California.(Photo: ASU)

The advertising campaign came out of brainstorming by ASU Vice President for Athletics Ray Anderson and other on his senior staff including Jean Boyd, Frank Ferrara, Becky Parke and Cagwin.

The billboards have been up for a few weeks and will continue during January. Through Sunday, they have been displayed almost 30,000 times with more than 700,000 estimated impressions.

Boyd, ASU executive senior associate athletic director, said the billboard campaign originated as a way to honor junior wide receiver N'Keal Harry, who is leaving early for the NFL. That led to eight billboards in the metro Phoenix area.

"N'Keal was such an important athlete, the idea came forward to honor him in a way to say thank you for staying home," Boyd said. "Then we thought is there a way we can do something similar to generate interest in Sun Devil athletics and buying tickets so it became more of a two-part (advertising) platform."

Though public awareness and reach ASU's largest alumni base outside of Arizona are the campaign focus, the billboards obviously serve another purpose in putting the Sun Devil brand in front of potential recruits.

ASU football signed eight California players in December including quarterbacks Jayden Daniels and Joey Yellen and offensive lineman Dohnovan West, all enrolling early and participate in spring practice during February. A second signing day is coming up Feb. 6.